Road Trip from Tampa, Florida to San Francisco, CA.

My husband and I recently moved from Columbus, Ohio to Tampa, Florida. We've saved up some money, and we're putting our job search on hold (smiley face) to take a road-trip from Tampa, Florida to SF, CA. We have no commitments prior to us starting our trip, so we'll leave as soon as we have our trip planned! We want to be in San Fran for the Outside Lands Festival from August 10th to August 12th, and my first grad school obligation is on August 22nd. We're thinking 4 weeks should give us enough time to get from FL to CA for the festival - with plenty of time left for exploring!

I'd feel bad leaving my dog at a dog hotel (or the like) for a month, so we're hoping to take him with us as much as possible, and we'll just look for doggie daycares or dog-friendly hotels as necessary (i.e. whenever we want to spend some time somewhere he can't go). For the most part, we hope to camp our way across (tent & tarps are already in the trunk).

Given the above information, does anyone have some suggestions for what we should stop to do or see along our path, or where we should stay? Feel free to mention festivals, bars, and sites to see in cities, parks, museums, galleries, zoos, etcs. We're into about anything and everything :-)

4 weeks is a fantastic amount of time to do a cross country trip. Camping will make it quite easy to travel with your dog, although finding pet friendly rooms isn't usually too difficult when you want to splurge on a motel room. Other sightseeing elements will be a bit more challenging, as even in a pet friendly hotel, you typically can't leave your dog alone the room. Some major attractions like theme parks sometimes have their own kennels, but for a lot of other places you will have to look finding a safe place while you visit places like museum, galleries, bars, etc. National Parks are also typically very limited to where you can take your pet (typically only places where you can take your car, but not any trails or viewpoints.)

As far as specifics of what to see, "anything and everything" could include millions upon millions of things. You are talking about a trip that could cover nearly the entire US, afterall. It really works best if you figure out an outline that focuses on the handful of things that are must see for you, and then once you've done that its a lot easier for others to offer additional tips that would complement your plan.